Lutheran Essentials meets in the undercroft of the church on Wednesday evenings at 7pm. You can reach the undercroft by going around to the back parking lot of the church and descending the staircase to the kitchen. Knock on the door if it is closed and some one will let you in. You can also join us remotely via our livestream. This week we will be starting our study on the Augsburg Confession. We are providing hard copies of the Book of Concord for free, as well as copies of the Lutheran Service Book.
We will open class with Psalm 119:1-8 (Aleph) and our catechism lesson will be the Introduction of the Lord’s Prayer. We will then do a brief history lesson spanning the time between the nailing of the 95 Theses in 1517 to the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession in 1530. We will then read the Preface of the Augsburg Confession. We will talk about the intent of the Diet of Augsburg and what the Lutheran princes wished to accomplish with the Augsburg Confession. We will close this section with singing “Lord Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word” (LSB 655).
We will then move on to read Article I on God. We will talk about who God is and how He has revealed Himself in Scripture. We will also talk about a variety of Trinitarian heresies and how they are rejected by the Reformers. We will then sing the hymn “We All Believe in One True God” (LSB 954).
We will then read Article II on Original Sin. We will discuss what original sin is and concupiscence, the desire to sin, is itself sin. We will also talk about how the Confutation misunderstands what original sin is and how the Apology rightly points out that original sin is the lack of original righteousness. We will close with singing “These Are the Holy Ten Commands” (LSB 581).
As always new people are always welcome to this study at any point during the class. Please talk to the Pastor, Elders or Paul Edmon if you have any questions.
